DIYPlanner.com

I have found after much experimentation that this is the daily scheduling format that I have managed to use for an extended period without finding it too cumbersome or too boring or too flighty.
I print the sheets in 2 page per sheet format and slice through the middle to get Junior size sheets for my junior size Circa planner.
I also have very small Circa punched cards which fit into the Slider sections, which are for keeping the weekly goals in view. Sometimes I may even dispense with the small cards and just daily write down the weekly goals that I would have arrived at through my weekly review.
The Inbox section is for recording whatever work arrives during the day and just making a note against each item as to how it has been dealt with or will be dealt with (delay/ delegate, etc)
Am putting this up in Word format so that everyone is free to customise the template for their own use and change the categories as they may deem fit.

This quick and easy Telephone Message Log work great with Circa, Filofax or three ring binders. It is intended for the Classic (A5) size Filofax or Junior size Circa generally about 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (or half a sheet of regular US letter size.)

Print the pages separately:

Front is the first page and back is the second.

Hole punch to your desired binder.

Best Wishes!

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Don't forget to print pages separately. You might want to check your printer settings and possibly print borderless if your setting eat up too much space around the borders.

No, I'm not dead. Although I can understand why some people believe that.

As much as I dearly love this site, and all the interesting people that have sprung up from nowhere to contribute their experiences, their ideas and their passions, life has thrown me a curveball or two.

Back when this site began, I was living in Newfoundland, Canada. I was doing contractual work (web development, training and marketing/communications consulting), and owing to the scarcity of such jobs in that locale, was blessed with plenty of spare time. I could afford to spend a thousand hours (yes, that many) working on hundreds of forms. I had just had a child, was surrounded by supportive family members, and life was relatively easy.

Today is different. I live in beautiful Yellowknife, Northwest Territories --yes, that's near the Arctic Circle-- where I have a job that requires me to perform my focused best at all hours of the day. (I am an executive at a marketing/communications company, to be precise.) We have had another child, now five, who is severely autistic, pre-communicative though seemingly happy, but who requires constant attention and plenty of patience. I have also had a hernia for the past year, and have recently had back surgery for a ruptured disc, and that's taking a toll on every little physical action I perform, including sitting down.

In short, live is no longer easy, and it's truly difficult to find time for my old passions. Not that I care any less for them, but the energy and time to pursue them is often lacking.

It's rare that I speak of things that are very personal, but I figured I owed you folks an explanation.

So, where are we now?

There have been rumours that I am selling the site. I tend to get an offer or two every month, it's true. But I can't put a dollar figure on this community, knowing that these buyers would only take advantage of the terrific content here to plug every hole with a dozen ads to monetize the resulting mess. No, thank you.

We've had to turn off new user registration because we were being spammed to death. If you would like a user created, for now you can contact me directly at douglasjohnston on gmail.com. State two preferred user names, in case the first is taken. Please be patient and give me a day or two to set you up.

Partly related to our spam issues, I'm afraid the CMS that powers this site, Drupal, is a couple generations old. Upgrading the site two versions is way out of my comfort zone, especially with custom content like the template directories. If you are a Drupal wizard who would like to volunteer to help me take that on, I would very much welcome your help. Once we upgrade, we can build a lot of improvements into the site, including social media, better galleries, better editing/admin tools, quicker moderation, faster response time, and all kinds of wonderful as-yet-thought-of goodness.

Innowen, Steve and the initial DiyP troop have gone on to more regular gigs, and I wish them all the best. They are truly wonderful people, and I love and respect them all. They've contributed so much over the years, and looking back I can't believe the depth and breadth of their hundreds of articles. Most would have run out of ideas after a few weeks, but they kept going, offering us fresh, informative and entertaining posts for years. Astonishing.

Speaking of writers, is there an opportunity for a "next generation" here? By all means! I can't do much by myself. If there is anyone reading this who would like to become a regular writer on this site, please contact me. The only catch is that I don't have the hours of time for editing that I used to. But if you're a talented writer, and would like to live in a stationery store, have a hankering for tinkering with your productivity system, push your creativity far beyond your limits, or love reviewing your cool new pens and notebooks to the utter bewilderment of your friends, you could be a fine fit here. Drop me a line and let's take it from there.

Last but not least, we have ygor. ygor, the amazing. ygor, the dedicated. ygor, the coding guru. ygor, the productivity maven. (ygor, the ill-captitalized.) ygor, the reason why this site still exists. I can't thank him enough, and I don't think any regular visitor to this site could, either. Thanks again, ygor, for keeping the ball rolling and instilling a strong sense of belonging and professionalism throughout this little community. You've been incredible, and there for us all.

So, I'm turning the mic over to you folks here. What would you like to see happen on this site? Any ideas for new features? Perhaps you're a designer and would like to take a crack at a new theme? Any products you'd like to see reviewed? Any stories to share? Tips for analog systems? Odes to your favourite fountain pen?

Let's sweep out the cobwebs, each grab a hammer or paintbrush, and start reconstructing this site into something great again. The foundation is there, reinforced by some tremendous dedication and talent and passion. But I want us to build it together.

Lately I changed to a small ring bound planner in the Franklin-Covey pocket size format (3 1/2 x 6 inches; 89 x 152 mm). As for me the addressbook is a vital part of my planner, I had to bring my contacts into that ringbook.

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For this purpose I made a template in scribus that brings three pages on an A4 sheet. Although the start-up filling I puchased for the planner brought an A-Z-register, I decided to include tabs in the design. That way I will not carry 13 black plastic stripes containing virtually no information with me.

All elements are arranged in layers, so they can easily be altered or switched off for printing. The layer ContentText has chained textboxes where the contacts have to be filled in with the story editor (of scribus). To faciliate formatting I added two paragraph styles: EntryHeadline and EntryBody.

For me I set up one file for each section (AB; CD; etc.). If someone has very much contacts starting with a specific letter I suggest one individual file for that letter. It is possible to add more pages in the template by using the master-pages I defined. But then it is necessary also to add the new texboxes and to continue the chain.

In fact this template can be used for any form of the specific size in a 3-up way.

Some printers might be tricky in printing double sided, but this topic is covered elsewhere in this forum.

This is a simple template which I find very helpful as a student and a business owner. It's in black and white, and it was originally designed for letter or A4 sized paper - not sure how it will look on A5 or Classic.

It's prioritized by Urgent vs. Important goals, and it allows you to track your progress every week in the categories of school, business, and health.

You also pick an action goal for the week which you want to accomplish that week, and at the end of the week you write down what you did to accomplish that goal as a pat on the back - this is to show you past successes and keep you motivated. This can be anything - it doesn't have to be related to school or business. Mine last week was that I need to go through my fridge and clean it out, and restock with healthy food. And it got done! Mostly, I make these goals ones that I usually hate doing so that my satisfaction at accomplishing them is even higher than normal.

It has timings from 8 a.m. - 12 a.m. because I know we keep long hours.

I hope this helps you out and god bless in accomplishing your goals and creating your future.

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I would suggest sitting down at the beginning of the week (sunday night for me)and writing down your goals for this week, along with your Big Goal, and as the week goes along, track your progress.

Always separate what is urgent from what is important. The way I define it is, if it's something that will get you closer to your goals, and actually move you forward, it's important. Otherwise, it's simply urgent. You might need to do the urgent things first, but always keep your perspective about them, and don't get caught up - just get it done, then forget it!

And remember that health is one of the big three - don't get so busy accomplishing that you forget that you need to be healthy to enjoy it!

I had already posted my daily planner earlier and was hesitating to post my weekly planning system since it is rather detailed and time consuming. In any event, am posting it now in case it helps even one person other than me.
If you have a look at the flowchart which is attached first, it may aid in understanding the flow of the weekly review attachment.

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The attachment itself contains the usage advice. I am posting two attachments, one with examples typed out for viewing, and the other is the same form without examples and ready for download if someone wishes. There is a bit of discrepancy between the two attachments as far as Table C is concerned, but that can be ignored since the blank form contains the final format.

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The D*I*Y Planner product, its name, and its associated designs are owned by Douglas Johnston. Other materials remain the property of their authors and are subject to whatever licenses under which they choose to release them.